Thailand · Changwat Surat Thani
Where to Stay in Surat Thani, Changwat Surat Thani
Surat Thani is a city of southern Thailand on the Tapi river by the Gulf, the mainland step to the islands of Samui and the site of an ancient Srivijaya town.
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Where to stay in Surat Thani
Where you base yourself shapes the visit — here's the character of each area.
Where you stay in Surat Thani turns on the town or the piers. The streets by the river keep the market, the riverfront, and the town within a walk, and staying downtown suits anyone here for the city. The Tapi runs past the town.
Night markets fill the streets. Out toward the piers and the coast, the town gives way to the ferry docks, the orchard country, and the road to Khao Sok. A room by the sea trades the streets for the island ferries, the quiet bay, and the boats out to Samui.
The gulf opens east to the isles. Stay downtown for the city, or by the coast for the islands. The river port opens on Bandon Bay.
About Surat Thani
Surat Thani is the port of the Samui coast.
What is Surat Thani known for?
On the Tapi river by the Gulf of Thailand in the south, it grew as a river port and the way to the islands, and it keeps the ferries out to Samui and its sister isles, the ancient Srivijaya stupa of Chaiya nearby, the rambutan orchards that first grew here, and the rainforest of Khao Sok inland. The wide river runs to the bay. Green isles lie out to sea.
What are the main landmarks in Surat Thani?
The Chaiya stupa is the pride of the Surat Thani country. The ancient Srivijaya temple at Chaiya, holding a great old stupa and a famous bronze, is the emblem of the region, out of downtown. Islands rise from the gulf.
The green isles of Samui and its sisters lie out in the bay, while the Tapi river, the Khao Sok forest, and the rambutan orchards mark the country around Surat Thani.
What is the history of Surat Thani?
This coast was once a seat of Srivijaya. Over a thousand years ago the great sea empire of Srivijaya rose along these shores, and at Chaiya near Surat Thani it left a stupa and a famous bronze of the Buddhist saint of mercy. The old town grew by the river.
Surat Thani rose as a river port on the Tapi, gathering the trade of the coast and the islands of the gulf. The islands made the modern town. When travelers began to sail out to Samui and its sister isles, Surat Thani became the way out to them, its piers busy with ferries.
The land gave fruit and rubber. Its orchards around first grew the rambutan in Thailand, and rubber and oysters filled the trade, while inland the rainforest of Khao Sok drew visitors, so Surat Thani grew as the port of the southern gulf, keeping its river, its islands, and its shrines. The ferries still leave for the isles.
Surat Thani keeps its river port by Bandon Bay.
Where is Surat Thani?
Surat Thani lies on the east coast of southern Thailand, on the Tapi river by Bandon Bay. The city sits on the flat river plain where the Tapi runs into the Gulf, in a green land of orchards and rubber, with the islands of Samui out in the gulf and the limestone hills of Khao Sok rising inland. The river runs slow to the bay.
Green orchards fill the plain.
What is the climate of Surat Thani?
Surat Thani has a hot, humid tropical climate. Warm weather holds all year on the coast, with a long wet monsoon late in the year and warmer dry months at its start. The monsoon soaks the coast.
Warm air hangs over the bay.
How do you get to Surat Thani?
Surat Thani lies on the east coast of southern Thailand, on the line and road from Bangkok. Trains and flights run to it down the peninsula from Bangkok, and ferries sail out to Samui. Boats leave for the islands.
Bangkok lies far to the north.
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Updated August 2026